Piercings “painful” for Rep. Jane Cunningham
State Rep. Jane Cunningham of Chesterfield is coming under fire for her alleged shabby treatment of gay and lesbian students who were in the Capitol last week to lobby for an anti-bullying bill. According to the students, 16-year-old Desiree Bain and 19-year-old Austyn Langston, they were kicked out of Cunningham’s office because of their appearance. Both Bain, a lesbian, and Langston, a bisexual, have multiple piercings. Langston also has purple hair.
“We were polite,” Bain says. “We were introducing ourselves and in the middle of saying my name and she told us to get out. She told us we were making her physically ill to look at. She said she didnt understand why we didn’t hate ourselves.”
Cunningham said today that she doesn’t deny asking the students to leave. And she admits that she found “their appearance very painful to look at.” But Cunningham says she only asked the students to leave because they weren’t her constituents. Both Bain and Langston are from Kansas City. Cunningham says she asked them to sign in and they represented that they were her constituents.
“They told us they were constituents,” she said. “They got in here under false pretenses.”
Not so, say both Bain and Langston. They say they told Cunningham they were from Kansas City.
“She told us we couldn’t be in her office because she was offended by us,” Langston said.
The students were in the Capitol on Wednesday to lobby for an anti-bullying bill being sponsored by Rep. Sara Lampe of Springfield. The bill would alter a law supported by Cunningham that passed two years ago which required schools to develop anti-bullying policies. Lampe wants to see the law specifically address bullying against students because of sexual orientation.
Langston and Bain said they went to see Cunningham because of her position as chairwoman of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee.
This is not the first time Cunningham has made a name for herself when dealing with gay and lesbian issues. In 2003, she accused former Kirkwood High School principal Franklin S. McCallie of rallying St. Louis County voters to vote against Christian candidates. McCallie was testifying in favor of a similar bill at that time.
Cunningham is also the sponsor of the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act which aims to hold universities accountable for allowing students to hold diverse opinions.
rockslide, I couldn’t agree with you more!
If those folks showed up in my office for a job, they would be shown the door. If you don’t have enough respect for yourself or you body than to get it all inked up and poked full of holes because you’re pissed off at the world (presumably because it refuses to give you the favor that you think you so deserve), then why would I take any of your issues seriously?
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I’m assuming you shave, Jim, which is one of the causes of infections and in-grown hairs, so let’s not attempt to pretend that your choice of disrespect for your own body is somehow superior to other citizens.
The citizens weren’t calling on you looking for a job. They were calling on their EMPLOYEE, the representative, on business concerning HER job.
Now it might be a new concept for “conservatives” to consider that public servants are actually employees of the people. . .but then Republicans view holding public office as some type of annointed-by-God entitlement based on their own self-appointed visions of social class.
All that aside, I have to say I agree with her somewhat in this case. For one, it is her office and she can ask anyone she wants to come in or get out and the only people she has to answer to are her voters.
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I’m assuming, since this was the Jefferson City office, that it most certainly does NOT belong to her - it belongs to the citizens of Missouri. She is just occupying it in public trust.
It’s pathetic for you liberals to associate physical deformities or handicaps of people with the self-mutilation of these counter-culture types.
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Given the state representative’s obvious lack of good manners, perhaps your real yearning should be for someone holding public office which is less worried about appearance and more concerned about substance.
rockslide, I couldn’t agree with you more!
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Hey jim. . .were they at the representative’s office looking for a job, or seeking a discussion about HER job?
Hey…Jim (R),
And Elvis with all those disgusting and blatant sexual hip gyrations, not to mention those long haired hippy freaks named John, Paul, George, and Ringo!
It’s time for your nap now Jim.
How terrible a busy person threw non-constituent disgusting looking people out of her office.
Cut me a break, dress respectfully, and take the dye out of your hair when you go to the capitol. How can you possibly compare someone who was injured in an accident to someone who mutilates their body intentionally?
Kevin,
First of all the office IS their property for their term in office. And yes they can toss anyone out they feel like. They have to answer only to THEIR voters. And these two young ladies were not her constituents so she had every right to ask them to leave. I remember one democrat many years ago that had a sign on his door that simply read “GO AWAY, I do not accept meetings with anyone”
Second, it’s not about looking for a job it’s about their overall demeanor. I have seen these kids go through the captiol bopping into offices dressed like slobs and acting like, well kids. And yet they are amazed they are not treated with respect. You have to show respect to get respect. And when you pop into someone’s office wanting something of them then maybe you should think about how you present yourself.
If appearance didn’t matter than I would imagine that most CEOs and big companies out there would be holding board meetings in their PJs and bathrobes. But the fact is how you carry yourself in public and the respect you show to yourself and your appearance does matter and it matters greatly. Now if I walked into a store populated by a bunch of emos in my suit and tie I would imagine i would get the same looks as these two purpled haired, dart boards got in Jane’s office.
And finally, believe me it pains me greatly to defend Jane. But I rest assured that it will only be a matter of time before she does or says something so asinine and stupid that I will be able to swing back to massively disliking her.
No! It wasn’t about sexual preference. It was about DISCRIMINATION. It would have been the same for her to say I don’t like the color of your skin, it nauseates me. She took one look at them and based all of her decisions on what she saw. They very well could be the next Noble Peace Prize winners. For Centrist to say that society will probabably supporting them is also DISCRIMINATION. DISCRIMINATION is a central theme for the conservative so-called self-proclaimed religious folks.
In Jane’s defense, as she is a friend, of sorts, she has a delicate and sensitive nature. Not where other people are concerned, of course, but as Pat Paulsen would say, “Picky, picky, picky.”